Copyright reform is back as the government has placed the copyright reform bill on the notice paper. It is scheduled to be introduced on Thursday, alongside the privacy reform bill that also died with the March election call.
Post Tagged with: "copyright"
Behind the Scenes of Bill C-32: Govt’s Clause-By-Clause Analysis Raises Constitutional Questions
There are few surprises here as the document provides a helpful analysis of the bill from the government’s perspective. The exhaustive review provides a striking reminder that the government is extending liability under the Copyright Act for activities that may not even infringe copyright, thereby raising questions about the constitutionality of some provisions. This is the result of the digital lock rules, which necessitated a change in the infringement provision. The rationale notes (page 708):
The Bill introduces new causes of action (such as those relating to TPMs and RMIs) that could be used in civil lawsuits regardless of whether or not there has been an infringement of copyright.
The discussion on the digital lock provisions also emphasize that the defences to copyright infringement are not available for circumvention of a digital lock (page 718):
Generally, an owner of copyright in a work or other subject matter for which this prohibition has been contrevened has the same remedies as if this were an infringement of copyright (proposed s.41(2)). However, a contravention of this prohibition is not an infringement of copyright and the defences to infringement of copyright are not defences to these prohibitions.
The government’s own words on the digital lock provision confirm that they may be unconstitutional since they fall outside the boundaries of copyright.
Behind the Scenes of Bill C-32: The Complete Ministerial Q & A
My posts in the months leading up to the bill gave some sense of what was likely on the way and more recently I’ve written on the Wikileaks cables that demonstrate the remarkable U.S. influence over the Canadian copyright agenda. I’ve now obtained a series of documents that provide some useful insights into the behind-the-scenes work within the government and the C-32 legislative committee. While access-to-information requests typically exclude information about government bills, the death of Bill C-32 meant the information was fair game. Over the next week, I plan daily posts of various documents including the government’s full clause-by-clause analysis, its C-32 committee witness strategy, and an analysis of the submissions provided to the committee by dozens of groups and individuals.
The series starts with the complete question and answer document [15 MB PDF] prepared for Ministers Moore and Clement for their committee appearance in November 2010 (Scribd version embedded below). The document covers a wide range of anticipated questions and the official government response to each. The answers will not surprise as anyone following the issue will have heard the Ministers and other MPs repeat them regularly. Nevertheless, the more interesting scripted responses to key questions include (with some context in square brackets):
Hurt Locker File Sharing Lawsuits Put the Hurt on Everyone
Late last month the court ordered the three ISPs to disclose the names and addresses of subscribers linked to IP addresses alleged to have copied the movie. The ISPs complied last week as lawyers for the Hurt Locker copyright owner moved to have their case treated as a “specially managed proceeding” that would put the case on a rocket docket.
My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) argues the lawsuits hurt seemingly everyone.
The Cost of Copyright Term Extension
Last week, the European Council passed copyright term extension for sound recordings, extending the term from 50 to 70 years. Martin Kretschmer, a UK professor, notes that the cost of the extension will exceed one billion euros to the general public. Seventy-two percent of the revenues will go to record […]
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